The present study tested the appHcabiUty of Ajzen's (1985) theory of
planned behaviour (TPB), an extension of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975)
theory of reasoned action (TRA), for the first time, in the context of abused
women's decision to leave their abusive relationships. The TPB, as a
means of predicting women's decision to leave their abusive partners' was
drawn from Strube's (1988, 1991) proposed decision-making model based
on the principle that the decision-making process is a rational, deliberative
process, and regardless of outcome, was a result of a logical assessment of
the available data. As a means of predicting those behaviours not under
volitional control, Ajzen's (1985) TPB incorporated a measure of perceived
behavioural control. Data were collected in two phases, ranging from 6
months to 1 year apart.
It was hypothesized that, to the extent that an abused woman held
positive attitudes, subjective norms conducive to leaving, and perceived
control over leaving, she would form an intention to leave and thus,
increase the likelihood of actually leaving her partner. Furthermore, it
was expected that perceptions of control would predict leaving behaviour
over and above attitude and subjective norm. In addition, severity and
frequency of abuse were assessed, as were demographic variables.
The TPB failed to account significantly for variability in either
intentions or leaving behaviour. All of the variance was attributed to
those variables associated with the theory of reasoned action, with social
influence emerging as the strongest predictor of a woman's intentions.
The poor performance of this model is attributed to measurement
problems with aspects of attitude and perceived control, as well as a lack of
power due to the small sample size. The insufficiency of perceived control
to predict behaviour also suggests that, on the surface at least, other factors
may be at work in this context. Implications of these results, and
recommendations such as, the importance of obtaining representative
samples, the inclusion of self-esteem and emotions as predictor variables
in this model, a reevaluation of the target behaviovu" as nonvolitional,
and longitudinal studies spanning a longer time period for future research
within the context of decision-making are discussed.